I know we’re probably all tiring of holiday music, but I will make an exception for Julie’s original compositions.
Cats
Miss Little Star with Korg microKEY and Akai MIDIMix
The adorable Miss Little Star steps onto the Korg microKEY for her co-producer debut.
From Martyna Basta (@martynkabasta on Instagram).
warning 2026 my co-producer is about to detonate
You can see a short video of Miss Little Star on the microKEY here
Composer Cat with Sibelius
This cat seems to really want to “compose” music as they paw at a Sibelius score on the screen.
From harrison_j_collins via Instagram.
Haku and Infinite Machinery modules
Haku helps his human pal Erik Ribeiro (@eriksuperlazy on Instagram) unbox and set up new modules from Infinite Machinery. Erik got these back when we were all at Knobcon. I, too, am still setting up some of the modules that I acquired there.
It appears the Infinite Machinery modules in question are the TZ (thru-zero) Dual VCO and Low Road filter.
And here they are installed and set up to make some noise.
George and Casio keyboard ambient track
A soothing ambient track by George on his trusty Casio keyboard. Check out his Instagram for more performances.
He seems to really be relaxed and enjoying himself, too.
Nimbus on the keys
Nimbus plays us a little tune on the piano. And he is dressed for his performance, too!
Nimbus lives with our friend and local artist, Sandy Yagi, here in San Francisco.
Find out more about Nimbus and his many talents at his website.
Boris & Natasha with Arturia MicroFreak
Meet adorable kittens Boris and Natasha! We see them posing here with an Arturia MicroFreak (complete with vocoder mic).
Submitted by Darren Douglas Danahy, the human of the late great Hookah the Cat, via our Facebook page.
Hello CatSynth, it’s been almost a year since we lost our keyboard playing cat Hookah, but a week ago we adopted Boris and Natasha. Today I let them in the music room and they are ALL ABOUT IT.
We at CatSynth welcome Boris and Natasha to their new forever home, and look forward to seeing more of them in the future.
Chichiro and Doepfer Dark Energy Mk1
Chichiro inspects a Doepfer Dark Energy Mk1 synthesizer. Submitted by our friend Erik Ribeiro (@eriksuperlazy on Instagram).
The Doepfer Dark Energy was built around the Curtis CEM3394 “synth on a chip”. Curtis filter chips are well known and prolific in analog synthesizers, but this chip also includes a VCO and VCA – in short, a full synthesizer voice. It would definitely be fun to get hold of one of these, either packaged like the Dark Energy or on its own to experiment with.
Mon petit helper à l’œuvre
A cat helping out in the studio with various signal-processing units, including Klark-Technik LA-2A clone, a vintage Alesis MIDIVerb III, a couple of units from A.R.T., and more.
Sunday Newsletter: Sam Sam’s 7th Gotcha Day!
Today marks the 7th anniversary of Sam Sam’s arrival at CatSynth HQ! Please join me in wishing her a Happy Gotcha Day!
As we have related in previous years, Samantha, better known by her nickname “Sam Sam”, had been through a series of homes, including (as I like to say) “out in back of Palmdale where the turkey farmers run”. Our friends who were looking out for her let me know that she needed a new home and knew that I had recently lost Luna. Grief is a non-linear process, and I had not yet been looking to welcome a new cat into my life. But I could say no to this adorable kitty in need. So of course, I said yes, and she made the long trip up from Southern California to join us at HQ.
She was very skittish at first, but soon grew into her new home, and of course, we have loved having her ever since. It’s hard to imagine life at CatSynth without her.
It’s not common for Sam Sam to get up on the desks in the studio, but she does get curious from time to time, as seen in the image above. In recent years, she has also become one of the stars of our Caturday Shorts series on CatSynth TV, along with her frenemy Big Merp.
We certainly hope to share our home and life with Sam Sam for a long time to come.